PPBongi
California, USA
Brilliant and Phenomenal Movie
This was a simple story of serendipity, perhaps fate, and/or destiny. You choose. This was mostly a story with, for, and about teenage boys who fall in love with teenage boys and they alone must resolve their own dilemmas. How this story ends is, for me, a cinematic triumph and has to be experienced personally. So, I leave that up to you. The brilliant mixture of the Catholic Church with fortune-telling and destiny is brilliant and makes this movie so special and unique.If yo want to read my full review of this exciting movie, please visit my site at BLBliss.com.
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An Excellent Series with a Caveat
I had a love/hate reaction to this series. The acting is SUPERB, honestly. The screenplay is excellent. Some of the dialogue of what is God is spot-on. What brought this down was the production issues. Hard to hear. Unnecessarily long-lingering shots. Camera angles at times were hidden by trees, plants that were annoying. But what bothered me the most (remember, this is just me), is the fact that the two main characters are in LOVE with each other and they never kiss. Dear God, I am getting tired and weary of these BL series who won't show one genuine sincere iota of love because of simple prudishness. You are creating a story of love between two men and we can't even get a simple kiss?? Hugging is not enough. Holding hands is not enough. What creates a relationship is that kiss of intimacy which is unfortunately and sadly missing in a lot of these series.I am tortured because I really liked this story and the acting is so good and I want people to watch it. And, this is just me, I am disappointed because what I hold near and dear to my heart is the creation of love which starts with a simple kiss.
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A Very Likeable Mini-BL Series.
This is a very short but endearing series that gets to the point rather quickly and surprisingly well. There are no deep hidden meanings here nor are there any great dramas. It is just a slice of life that happens sometimes serendipitously. And these can be quite enjoyable, satisfying, and fulfilling. This is a standard love story with nothing particularly dynamic about it except that these two do have a soft imperceptible chemistry and connection together. My full review of this cute mini-series is on my blog at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
A Real Work of Art
This is an amazingly brave, thoughtful, and moralistically driven series. If you are looking for love in the BL sense of the word, move on. You will not find it here. It is not a BL series in that sense, but it does deal with very real issues facing the gay community. It deals with ethical and moral issues and conveys values that should be instilled into societal standards, no matter what country. It is both enlightening to watch yet painful to observe.From the onset, the acting in this series is simply first rate and excellent. Kudos to all the actors who portrayed characters that were deeply flawed with issues that unfortunately is rarely if ever dealt with effectively either in real life or in BL series. These guys were given meaty roles to sink their acting teeth into and did not have to rely on their bodies to tell the stories. This series presents each of these characters in unflattering terms and all are blemished and tainted and thus have stigmas. If you want to read my full review of this brilliant series, please go to my (free) blog at ppbongi.medium.com.
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A Stunning Story of Young Love
This is just a beautiful coming of age story that is so nicely told and acted that it really is a work of great beauty and art. It is not overtold or overacted. A simple story told in a simple way with vision and grace. The two main characters are just stunningly handsome and play their parts with such conviction and fortitude. I just loved these two main characters. The subtleties of this series can be underappreciated. You have to seek the unspoken ques of love between these two and the euphemisms that are evident otherwise you will miss the great beauty of telling a story not so much in words but in visualizations and simple actions.Was this review helpful to you?
Food and Good Looking Guys! Can't Beat That!
This is such an interesting BL series, but it honestly left me feeling satisfied, bored, and very sad. I just did not know what its intent was. It is not exactly a love story; or is it? It started out great but then got lost or overwhelmed by its own story. It was also obvious that there was a lag between the first half and the second half of the series. Whether it was due to the pandemic or not, there is a noticeable difference in the production and even the acting. The first half was charming, cute, and sort of drew you into their lives and I liked it. The second half felt ‘different’ and it had a sense of sadness to it that almost engulfed it. This series is a worthy series because of the superb and I do mean superb acting of Jeff and Gameplay. The bantering between these two, the laughing, the touching, the glancing and yes even the eating all seemed so natural real and unrehearsed. The story is slow and the production in places stinks, but to watch these two together makes up for any negativities in this series.Was this review helpful to you?
Really, a Gay Love Story
This an incredibly enjoyable short BL series that literally is only between the two guys. I found it to be quite refreshing and a moment in the lives of these two men that reflects who they are. It was wonderfully done and very succinct. These two guys are just so charming and awfully cute. They have a chemistry with each other that is immediately seen. Plus, each of them has a way at staring and looking at each other that makes what they are doing so real. It is charming, sensitive, and shows caring. Too often these stories, while longer, never really get into gay relationships with any kind of personal intensity. This one does; not a lot but it still does. My full review of this cute story is at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Where do I begin with this series!
Its production is simply lousy. The editing is awful. The sound is sporadic and uneven in a lot of places. The support characters are superficial and stereotypical. The main actors are at times have a flat affect about them and lack depth and suffered from someone not being able to give them good acting directions. The story meanders a lot and at times was hard to follow. But God, I LOVED IT! I honestly felt for these characters. It is just a stunning series of human reactions, of love, and of human pain yet filled with totally unrealistic characters that should NOT have worked. But did! There is nothing pretentious about this series. It is satirical but serious. It is over the top but never over acted. What makes this series so memorably brilliant (and I do mean brilliant) is the screenplay. This story is so in your face that it is hard to describe fully. There are mass amounts of symbolisms in this series that are just too numerous to mention but nonetheless add so much to the understanding of this story, sometimes with humor and sometimes very serious. I am aware of the issues surrounding the director but I am judging this series as to its merits. You can read my full review of this series at ppbongi.medium.com. I have a lot more to say there.Was this review helpful to you?
Brokenhearted
Intense, and softly romantic with much sadness throughout life. This is a short BL series about two students who meet in school and develop a friendship which eventually leads to a more intense interest in each other. It is a profoundly melancholic story that is undoubtedly too familiar in many people’s lives. The acting here is first rate, and they downplay the intensity which it should because the relationship never really developed outwardly. It is all internal. I liked this series a lot. It is well written, well-acted, and tells a good solid story. I wish there were a bit more character development and a greater understanding of how they got together when they are adults.Was this review helpful to you?
Stunning, Sad, and Profoundly Moving
This BL series has a ‘sad’ feeling about it from the very beginning. Nothing feels like it quite belongs. This is a slice of live series with no happy ending yet not really sad but so real. This is an enormously tragic story for all couples involved. In the end, the world must be righted and the only way to do that is to have no one win. So, this ends up maudlin, melancholic, and everyone being alone. It is a beautifully told story with realistic outcomes. Perhaps not the way we wanted it to be, but fate and destiny have other plans. There are no winners here but plenty of losers and those who paid the ultimate price of falling in love with them. You can read my full review of this sad but very moving series at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
A Profoundly Poignant Story
This is a beautiful and stunning (short) BL series. Of course, there are some flaws with its story and production, but they did not decrease from its overall theme or intensity of the story. It is a story about a friendship that happens by serendipitous (extraordinary if you will) means. That is the point to this story, really. So, this story resonated deeply with me as an intense love story that was never meant to be fulfilled in its corporeal form. In every sense of the word, they were a couple deeply in love, no matter how short their time together was. Whether this was the message or not, I was deeply and profoundly moved by this story that I was left in tears. (My husband had to console me). Those who did not find this story to their liking or gave it poor ratings, did not see its big picture or its impact. It indeed captured love for a different realm. You can read my full review of this profoundly moving series at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
A REALLY Good Series
This series is way more interesting then perhaps it is given credit for and in my opinion one of the best series out there. While the BL aspect may be thin, it is full of profound love and connection. There is really only one BL relationship somewhat going on. But there is so much more going on for it. I just need to state that this is one of THE handsomest ensemble casts I have ever seen. These guys are stunningly handsome and that can not be overlooked. The female leads are also extremely beautiful but none of that matters in this story. This is just extraordinarily good story telling. Each of these characters had charm, growth, and all developed a sense of purpose, responsibility, and commitment and perhaps, and most importantly, lifelong friendships. Each also had to come to terms with that they did to negatively manipulate others to fall and learn to forgive themselves and admit to their errors. If you want to read my full review of this series, please visit my (free) blog site at ppbongi.medium.com.Was this review helpful to you?
Intense
It is very intense and full of assault, violence, deceit, and passiveness, closely bordering on abuse. I for one did not see this as others saw it. Yes, there is violence but not abuse. It seems either the positive path or negative path, it will lead to the same outcome. While it seems destiny is written, there are clues that somehow things are different and the story is not the same, even though the path might be the same. Yes, I do understand why some disliked this series as it is driven by a person’s irrational and negative obsession for another. BUT, that person is not totally powerless to stop it. He just cannot. It may not be the story of redemption that is based on a path of understanding, but it is one based on great pain, wrongs, and toxic behaviors. I thought it was raw, intense, painful to watch, and in every sense of the word, real. Some relationships are based on emotionally painful and toxic journeys before a deeper appreciation and understanding of each other can be attained.Was this review helpful to you?
Only One Reason to Watch .....Perth
Romantic, angst, but misses the mark. This series is a bit better than 'Love by Chance 2' but again, there just is too much of a good thing. Way too many characters and way too many very serious issues that are dealt with so cavalierly. This series tried to do too much with too many people with too many overlapping situations. Sometimes, simple stories work best but this was overly busy and filled with a lot of very unnecessary individuals. Had this story focused on one or even 2 relationships, it would have been tighter, leaning, and a more watchable series. Digressing for a moment, this series does have the one thing in it that would want me to rewatch it. Actually, the only reason. And that is Perth as Ae. He is simply outstanding. He is by far my most favorite actor in any series. He is just a joy to watch. You can read my full review of this series at ppbongi.medium.com. Leave comments if you like.Was this review helpful to you?
Romantic, Beautiful, and Quirky
I really liked this series, although everything in my being at the beginning said that I should not. The first episode is simply awful if not terrible. The acting was bad, and the production value was amateurish at best. You must get through the first episode and some of the second before this story will grab you and it surely did me. What made it interesting is it centered around a boy band’s difficulties in interacting with each other with an odd over the top band manager to guide them. It is so obvious from the beginning that they guys are new and very much inexperienced in acting but yet the story intrigued me, and the dialogue hooked me to watch more and I am so glad I did. The acting, the story, the characters got much better as they became more comfortable in their roles. They let loose and it became a surprisingly interesting and entertaining series. One final word about these actors. In some sense, I found this ensemble of characters interesting, dynamic, and honestly one of the best in a BL series. If you want to review my full review of this quirky series, see it at ppbongi.medium.com. Enjoy!Was this review helpful to you?
